


Get Your Head in the Game

by Lavendergaia



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Tripskye Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 09:14:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3972391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavendergaia/pseuds/Lavendergaia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye has nothing in common with college basketball god Antoine Triplett. Except, apparently, the need for two oblivious science dorks to see that they are absolutely perfect for each other.</p><p>Because when two people are perfect for each other, that’s something they should realize, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. He Said Don't Be Afraid, What Ya Waitin' On?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Tripskye week! Thanks to Fitzsimmonsy for the beta.

When Antoine Triplett sat across from her at her table in the student union, Skye first wondered if she was hallucinating. After determining that it was actually him, she glanced around the room, counting the dozens of other empty tables, and wondered if she just happened to pick the one that the basketball players had claimed as theirs. Maybe this was the spot where the fluorescent lighting hit their muscles just right or was the best place for everyone to see them spin a ball on their finger. Skye didn’t really know what basketball players prioritized.

As he leaned back in his chair and smiled at her, she crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you lost?”

“You’re Skye, right?”

“Yeah.” She clenched her jaw, hackles raised. She didn’t like it when people knew her. She’d gotten where she was in life by not being known. “Can I help you, LeBron James?”

He winced, shaking his head. “LeBron, really? C’mon, girl, it’s all about Kobe. Look, I’m Ant—”

“I know who you are,” she said quickly, staring at him over the top of her laptop screen. “Everyone knows who you are. I’m pretty sure they’re redesigning the university seal to put your face on it.”

He grinned at that and somehow it didn’t even come across as smug. She reminded herself that it probably was anyway. “You’re Jemma Simmons’ roommate, right?”

Oh, god, of course this was about Jemma. Skye had assumed that if Jemma had had a one night stand with Antoine Triplett of all people it would have been mentioned, but that detail had probably gotten lost in things that Jemma had thought were more important, like dissection and watching geek shows with Fitz. “You should let it go, dude,” she said, doing her best to be sympathetic and knowing she was failing. She was starting to think she should just print up cards to give to these poor bastards: _This is going to be a onetime thing. You’re probably going to be inevitably disappointing. Jemma’s not going to call you again. Move on. Stop bothering Jemma’s roommate, it just makes you look pathetic._

“What?” he said, frowning.

“I know Jemma is super good in bed—I mean, or so I can surmise by the way you guys keep bugging me about her, I haven’t actually partaken, not that I don’t think I’m not next after that hot blonde from her org chem class—but she’s not looking for a relationship. Or even like…another round. Because if she did, she let you know.” She shrugged and leaned over to pat his hand. “But you’re Antoine Triplett, so I’m sure you’ll get over it.”

It seemed to take him a while to process that information. “I—I’m friends with Fitz?” he eventually said.

“You _are_?”

“You sound like you don’t believe me.”

“Because I kind of don’t. Fitz doesn’t really have any friends, especially friends I don’t know about.” The only people Fitz hung out with on a regular basis were her, Jemma, Mack, and Hunter, and Hunter was only because he was Mack’s roommate, he sort of just tagged along by default and was also trying to bang the hot blonde from Jemma’s org chem class. Skye wasn’t entirely sure that Jemma’s interest wasn’t just to beat Hunter and watch him cry over it, a goal which Skye entirely supported and often encouraged.

Antoine Triplett shrugged. “We had stats together last semester. I needed it to fill my last math requirement, but Fitz was just taking it for fun.” Okay, that was true, god her friends were such dorks. “I needed a little bit of help and rather than me having to get an athletics tutor, Fitz studied with me. Guy knows what he’s talking about. I eventually helped him set up a fantasy basketball team. With his knowledge of statistics and modeling, dude’s gonna make bank.”

Fitz had been offering to pay for movies a lot more lately… “Huh. Okay. So, what’s that got to do with me? Just coming to introduce yourself? You want to hang with our gang, Antoine Triplett?”

“Trip. Everyone calls me Trip.”

“Trip,” she said, licking her lips.

“So, I don’t know if you realized this about Fitz, but he kinda has a thing for your roommate.”

Skye snorted loudly, not even a little bit ashamed at Trip’s shocked expression. “A thing? You don’t know if I realized Fitz has _a thing_ for Jemma? _You_ don’t know if I realized that Leopold Fitz worships the very ground that Jemma Simmons walks on and would probably marry her if we drove them to Vegas right now and would bear her children and cries himself to sleep at night thinking about her, that thing?”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Trip nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, that thing. I was just, you know, kind of wondering if maybe she was into him too? But if you said she’s not looking for a relationship—”

“Whoa, okay, whoa.” Groaning under her breath, Skye shook her head. She closed the screen of her laptop so she could rest her arms on the table and lean closer to him. “Okay, look, you are clearly new here. Jemma Simmons loves exactly two things in this world other than me and that’s science and Leo Fitz and not even in that order. Jemma is crazy about him. I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation with Jemma that has not somehow led to talking about Fitz and I live with the woman. The way they feel about each other is gross.”

“Okay, so it’s not just me,” he said, laughing lightly and bouncing a bit in his seat. “Because I’ve seen her a few times when I’ve hung out with Fitz and I thought she was his girlfriend, they’re basically on top of each other all the time. Sometimes I talk to him and he’s not even listening because—”

“He’s too busy staring at her? Welcome to my freaking life. You try to tell that kid something and it’s like you have to put horse blinders on him to get his attention.” She let out a long suffering sigh. “I’d have completely given up on him at this point if he didn’t do my college algebra homework for me.”

Smirking and resting his chin on his hand, he said, “So why aren’t they together then? I mean, it’s pretty clear to literally everyone else.”

“Because they’re stupid,” Skye grumbled, kicking her feet up on to a free chair. As Trip waited patiently for her to elaborate, she tugged a hand through her hair, wincing at a particularly snagged knot. “Okay, like, Jemma is very, very in love with him, it’s the worst, but she doesn’t even bother to think of herself being in love with him? It’s all, ‘Fitz is my very best friend—you know, except for you Skye—we have such a perfect relationship!’ As if it’s not clear on her face that she wants to jump his bones too. I had her help me with my final paper for my Intro to Psych course and she still didn’t understand that she is a living representation of denial. She just wanted to talk about brain chemistry like a nerd.

“And Fitz—ugh, Fitz. He knows he’s in love with Jemma, everyone knows Fitz is in love with Jemma. He’s just too…too Fitz to do anything about it. I’m not entirely sure he hasn’t already made an engagement ring, he is so far gone for her. But he doesn’t want to risk screwing anything up, or so he’s told me when he’s too drunk to keep his mouth shut, and so I guess he’s just going to wait until she does something instead. It’s like if a rock fell in love with a hard place.”

Trip pressed his lips together and made a deep noise in the back of his throat that made goosebumps prick on her arm. “So, what are we going to do about it?”

“Excuse me?”

“I told you, Fitz is my friend,” he said, resting both of his arms on the table, wide fingers spread flat across the Formica surface. “I don’t think the guy is miserable or anything, but he’s clearly not the happiest Fitz he could be. I want to help him out.”

She was quiet for a second, regarding him carefully. “You really want to help them out?”

“I do. But I’m not sure what to do.” He leaned forward, brown eyes shining under the lights as he smiled at her. “You know them better than I do, what do you think?”

She found her words caught in the back of her throat as she stared at him. It was only the sound of the alarm on her phone that snapped her out of her reverie. “I’ve gotta go to class,” she said, silencing the alarm and grabbing her laptop to slip it back into her bag.

His shoulders slumped as he sat back in his seat. “Oh, yeah, class. Well, if you think of anything that we can do to help them, you should let me know.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket, swiped it to unlock and then held it out to her.

Blinking at the device—and a bit amused that he thought she couldn’t figure out his password—she stuffed her hands in her pockets. “Isn’t there like…a basketball signal on the roof of the gym that we use to get your attention or something?”

Trip laughed, then licked his bottom lip slowly. “I’ll suggest it to the boosters when I get a chance. But until then, if you give me your number, I can text you if I get an idea.”

Skye drummed her fingers against her thigh from inside her pocket for a second before making her decision. She reached for the phone quickly before she could change her mind, tapping her number in and then handing it back to him. “Yeah, okay. If you can think of anything to help those super dorks, you know, I’m in.”

“Cool.” He looked down at her number and smiled before fixing his warm gaze back on her. “I’ll let you know. Have a good class.”

“What? Oh, right.” Who the hell was supposed to think about bio at a time like this? “Uh, bye.” She turned around quickly to head to the science building, her heart thudding in her chest. She couldn’t believe she’d just given basketball god Antoine Triplett her phone number. He would probably never even text her, he was just messing with her because that was what jock guys like that did.

She hadn’t even reached her lab table before she felt the vibration in her pocket. Fishing her phone out with fumbling hands, she saw the text with the unknown number: _Hey, it’s Trip! Just wanted you to have mine too. :)_

Skye swallowed hard and stuffed her phone at the bottom of her bag to exchange it for her textbook. Looked like she was actually going to be paying attention in bio today. Jemma was going to be so proud.

\-----

That night, she was lounging on her bed with her American History textbook, the one class where really neither Jemma nor Fitz were any really great help to her, other than pointing out her grammatical errors. It almost wasn’t worth it most of the time as it usually descended into a rant about how Microsoft Word didn’t think “colour” was a word because it had a “u” in it and the imperialism of American software.

She glanced over at Jemma’s side of the room, where her friend was remaking her already perfect bed, setting up her pillows and backrest and body pillow, smoothing out her white and pale green bedspread. Face twisted in confusion, Skye pulled her headphones away from her ears. “What are you doing?”

“Fitz is coming over—”

“Of course he is, it’s a day of the week.”

Jemma shot her an unamused look before continuing, “Fitz is coming over and we’re going to watch the old ‘Star Trek’ series while we do our Calc 2 problems. I just wanted to make sure everything was nice.”

Fitz was in their room far more than his own (which, to be fair, his roommate Seth was mostly a douchebag), but it still made Skye’s stomach go warm that Jemma went through all the trouble. It looked like she had even brushed out her hair and put on a little lip gloss. And she still pretended she wasn’t in love with the guy. “Hey, isn’t that sweater you’re wearing Fitz’s?”

Blatantly ignoring the question, she said, “You’re welcome to join us if you’d like, he’s bringing snacks.”

“Of course he is, it’s a day of the week.” When Jemma just rolled her eyes, Skye grinned at the back of her head. “I’d like to join your geekfest, but I have like 80 pages of reading to do and I have to figure out a proposal for this paper and I don’t even know what my topic is yet. But you guys have fun.” She added a little bit of emphasis to “have fun,” watching Jemma’s face, but her roommate didn’t seem to get the hint. She never really did.

Her phone lit up on the dock next to her bed and when she saw that it was just Miles, she decided to ignore it. It did remind her, however, of the text she had received earlier. “Hey, Jem, what do you think of Antoine Triplett?”

Jemma turned to look at her with a face of surprise, which was fair because if she was going to make a list of everything Skye would have said at that moment, asking about the captain of the basketball team probably would have ranked very low on her list. “He’s a good basketball player?” Jemma suggested, tapping her finger against her chin. “I’ve spent a bit of time with him with Fitz, did you know they’re friends?” Skye made her best face of not knowing this brand new information. “Fitz actually helps out the basketball team by doing some statistical analysis for them. Trip—his friends call him Trip—says that Fitz’s input has really helped them improve this year, that he’s one of the prime reasons why the team is undefeated.” Jemma gave a happy little sigh and Skye couldn’t help but beam at how cute she was when it came to that dumb Scottish boy.

“Fitz is sorta, kinda smart sometimes, huh?”

“Sometimes I think I’m smart, but then Fitz will do something that just blows me away. He’s really an incredible genius, I’m lucky to be able to get to study with him,” Jemma gushed, her eyes bright. She seemed lost in her thoughts for a moment until she came back to herself. “But, oh, Trip, right. He was very nice the few times I’ve met him. Seemed down to earth despite his rather celebrity status around here. And he’s very nice to Fitz, which is important to me.” Skye nodded in agreement; people being nice to Fitz was pretty much her baseline for whether or not they were assholes. “He doesn’t seem anywhere near as entitled as he could be.”

Skye nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, right.”

“Why the sudden interest in Antoine Triplett?” Jemma said as she sat on her bed with her laptop, organizing it along with her calculus book, notebook, pencils, and calculator. Skye vaguely wondered how she was going to fit Fitz on there too, but then figured that was why she wasn’t the science nerd.

Trying to shrug nonchalantly, she said, “You see a guy’s face everywhere enough, you start to wonder about him. That’s all.”

Jemma wrinkled her nose. “Yes, they do seem to have posters of him everywhere, don’t they? It’s as if there aren’t any other players. But he is our top scorer by far and has quite a lot of rebounds and assists—Fitz sometimes talks to me when he’s doing the stats for the team. I suppose the school thinks he’s going to lead us to the championship and based on the numbers so far, they’re not wrong to think so. And you know I’m not one to really care about sports, but it’s good for the school. Championships mean increased alumni funds and donations, which get spread to every part of the campus. It could mean more money for the science department!”

Skye could easily think of dozens of things that could use the money more than the science department, but she just nodded. Luckily, she was saved by a knock on the door as Fitz arrived, as if drawn to them by talk of sciences and the departments that held them. “It’s me!” he called from outside the door. Like it’d be anyone else.

Bouncing up from the bed eagerly, Jemma absentmindedly ran her fingers through her hair and wet her lips with her tongue before she opened the door for him. “Hi, Fitz!” she said, her voice high with excitement.

“Hey, Jemma,” he said, lingering in the doorway to smile at her. It wasn’t until Skye waved to him that his gaze left her face to nod back. “Uh, hey, Skye.” He moved further into the room, shoulder brushing against Jemma and Skye tried to keep her laughter internal as she noticed the pink blush on his cheeks. “Got you something.”

Skye caught the Flaming Hot Cheetos as he tossed the bag to her and she moaned happily. “Oh, bless you, Leopold Fitz. See, this is why we keep you around.”

He seemed pleased by that assessment from her as she tore into the bag. “You watching ‘Star Trek’ with us?”

“Skye has homework to do,” Jemma said as she took the bag with the rest of the snacks from Fitz, unloading them on to her nightstand. She took the root beer that she found and handed it to Skye, rightfully assuming it was for her since neither of them drank it. “But if you need a break, the offer still stands, Skye.”

“Thanks, guys. And thanks, Fitz,” she said, toasting him with the plastic bottle. “You guys have fun.” She pulled her headphones back over her ears before turning back to her history book. Everything was a little bit better with Cheetos at least.

The next time she glanced over at Jemma and Fitz, her eyes practically rolled out of her head: they had managed to figure a way out of the lack of space situation by sitting basically on top of each other. Fitz’s right side was pressed against the wall with his notebook propped up against his knee so he could still conceivably maybe do equations. Jemma was pressed against his other side with his arm wrapped around her, her head comfortably settled against his cheek as she watched the Star Trek episode playing out in front of them. Skye wondered if either of them noticed the way Fitz’s fingers were gently stroking her arm in thoughtless patterns.

She briefly considered telling them that they were already dating and should probably just start making out as soon as she found another place to finish this paper proposal.

Then she imagined the looks they would give her: Fitz’s red embarrassment and stuttering denial; Jemma’s exasperated face and complete dismissal of the idea, which would only serve to upset Fitz, even though Skye would be the only one to notice. So okay. Maybe not just come out and say it. Maybe it needed a more delicate hand. A little bit of skill. An actual plan.

Groaning lightly under her breath, she reached over to the dock and pulled off her phone. She opened up her text messages and scrolled to the one she had gotten earlier from Trip. Typing quickly before she could lose her nerve, she responded: _I think we need to come up with some ideas. I know a place we can meet whenever they can spare you from Olympus._

The response back was almost instant: _I’m free from 3-6 tomorrow. What’d you have in mind?_

Smirking lightly, she glanced over to where Jemma was pointing out something in Fitz’s notes, her face gently nuzzling his neck as he turned redder and redder. She sent her info to Trip and then tossed her phone aside to pick up her textbook. There was pretty much only one reason she was willing to hang out with Antoine Triplett, and it was to make these two dorks happy. She always knew she’d do basically anything for that.

Of course, the universe would call that bluff.

\----

 The Hub was a small bookstore and coffee shop on the complete opposite side of campus than she usually hung out at; it took a shuttle bus to get there. It usually serviced the medical school and those sorts of graduate programs and wasn’t ever particularly busy. Skye assumed they had a morning rush and she’d seen a bit of a lunch rush from time to time, but she’d never had a problem grabbing one of their few tables or even one of the comfy chairs while enjoying a latte and one of their sandwiches or a muffin or two.

When Trip showed up, he was wearing a sleeveless tank top and mesh shorts, and his skin was glistening with sweat. He waved to her, pulling his headphones out of his ears as he came over to the table she had claimed in the back corner. “Hey, I’m glad you came.”

“Yeah, of course I came,” she said. Her eyes lingered on his bare arms as he stretched them over his head. “Did I catch you on the way to the gym?”

“Just came from there, actually,” he said with a grin. “I’ve got early classes today and then I’ve got weightlifting. Ducked out a little early to get here, but I figured if I ran, it’d make up for it.”

Skye narrowed her eyes at him. “You ran? It’s like…it’s at least three miles from the athletic center to here.”

“4.5, actually. So I’m kinda thirsty, I’ll be right back.” She watched him get in line at the café counter, indulging herself as she eyed his butt in his workout shorts. It didn’t take him long to return to her, carrying a large iced coffee and two plates with sandwiches. “Have you ever had one of their paninis?” he asked, setting one of the plates in front of her. “They’re delicious.”

She stared down at the panini, trying to ignore the growling in her stomach as she inhaled the scent of pesto, roasted peppers and melted cheese. “You didn’t have to get this for me.”

“I know, but so few people have had them, I feel like I get to show off when I share for the first time.” When she just continued to look at it, he shrugged and bit into his own. “I mean, if you don’t want it, that’s cool. I can easily eat two.”

Never a person to turn down free food, she picked it up and took a bite out of the end. Moaning with pleasure, she didn’t even care that it was burning her mouth as she licked up the excess pesto on her lip, the mozzarella stringing from her mouth to the sandwich. “Holy crap, that is good.”

He smiled as he swallowed his own bite. “Right? I don’t get out here very often, but when I do, I always get one of these. Or three. Don’t tell my coach.”

“I was surprised you knew what this place even was,” she said, taking another bite and savoring the flavors. “Most people have no idea that this even exists.” Jemma knew what it was, but also knew that it was Skye’s place when she wanted to get away from the main part of campus, so she had never been there.

“I’m over at the med school as often as I can be, shadowing the doctors and the med students. The Pre-Med Club meets in a room over here, so I get over here for those meetings whenever I can.”

She stared at him, startled. “You’re pre-med?” When he just laughed under his breath, she blushed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like…”

“It’s cool, I get that a lot,” he said, stretching his legs out under the table, his shin brushing against hers. “I’m studying Exercise Science so that I can eventually do something like sports medicine or physical therapy.”

Skye tapped her nails against the wood table. “Isn’t that what all athletes say? Oh, all I do is work out in the gym so I’m gonna study physical education?” She lowered her tone to try to mimic some of the men she had heard, “‘I’m gonna go pro and then be a personal trainer!’”

Snorting, Trip shrugged indulgently. “I mean, you’re not wrong. But I’ve seen enough guys ruin their careers, if not their health for good on the field, in practice, even just in the gym because they wanted to be out there supporting the team, supporting me. Figured that I wanted to focus my life on a way to give back by studying some real medicine and being able to support them.”

“This instead of going pro?”

“Oh, after I go pro.” He grinned widely at her and she rolled her eyes and looked away, but couldn’t help the way the corner of her mouth quirked up. His smile had that effect, it was why it was posted literally all over campus. “But if or when the pros call, they always stop calling eventually. There’s gotta be a backup. I’m not the kind of guy who thinks baseball is a backup career.”

“Hey, you lay off Michael Jordan, I really liked _Space Jam_.”

Laughing under his breath, he said, “Girl, I would never, he’s a living god.” He took a bite of his sandwich and wiped his mouth. “You’re computer science, right?”

Raising her eyebrows at him, she nodded, completely sure she had never mentioned that. “Yeah. I like computers.” His eyes never left hers and Skye suddenly found it way too intense. Looking down at her panini, she took a huge bite and swallowed it down before saying, “So, about our dorks.”

He grinned at her. “Yeah. Our dorks. What are we going to do about them?”

Licking her lips slowly, she met his gaze and forced herself to hold it as she shrugged her shoulder nonchalantly. “I’ve got a few ideas.”


	2. A Second Chance, Gotta Grab It And Go

“Do I want to know why you have covert listening devices?” Trip said, standing back with his arms crossed over his chest as Skye affixed the last of the bugs to the side of the pepper shaker.

Grinning at him over her shoulder, she said, “I’m not like a super spy or anything. That’d be cool though, right?” He shrugged, but he was smiling. “No, there’s this guy I know, Miles, he’s into basically anything tech he can get his hands on. These are his, he said I could borrow them as long as I bring them back tonight.”

The look on Trip’s face was impassable as he nodded; it was a fairly uncomfortable sensation, she realized. In just the short amount of time she had known him, she had gotten used to all of his reactions being written plainly on his face, emotions on clear display. “He friends with Fitz too?”

Snorting inelegantly, Skye shook her head. “God no.” She was slightly relieved when Trip raised his eyebrow at her, clearly curious. “Trust me, it’s nothing against Fitz. Fitz is my friend, he’s precious to me. That’s why I’d never introduce him to Miles. Miles is a complete asshole.”

“He let you borrow all this stuff.”

“Yeah, because he thinks I’m going to sleep with him when I bring it back, which is so not going to happen. Like I said, he’s an asshole.” The tension in Trip’s shoulders seemed to drain away as she took him by the arm and guided him into one of the chairs at the table. She reminded herself to ignore just how big his arm muscles were, as that was far from the point of this exercise (how much did he exercise—his biceps were as big as her freaking head, it was like he was going to rip out of that incredibly soft cashmere shirt and—focus). “When I cue you from the booth, just talk. I want to make sure I can pick up the sounds over on the laptop.”

“Got it, boss,” he said with a wink and she spun on her heel, ignoring how fast her heart was beating.

When she had told him about her plan to trick Fitz and Jemma into going on a date, he had gotten immediately involved. She had to admit that this restaurant was romantic—small intimate tables, soft lighting, and dulcet music really did create a mood. It helped that several of the cheerleaders worked there and Trip was friends with all of them; one of them was even the hostess for the night and had secured them the table for Jemma and Fitz as well as the booth in the back of the restaurant where she and Trip could spy on them, which was usually one of their most popular tables for couples. It was good to have the wait staff in on the plan, she reminded herself as yet another waitress came over to hug Trip. This was for her friends and their happiness.

Jemma thought she was meeting Skye there to eat dinner before they went to an art gallery opening that Skye supposedly had to write a paper on for her Intro to Art class. Fitz had been a little more difficult; Trip had finally convinced him that he needed him as a wingman on a double date and just needed him to meet him and the girls at the restaurant. The hostess and her staff promised to help them take care of the rest. Apparently, it was “anything for Trip.” Of course it was.

Skye settled back in the booth with her laptop as a few of the waitresses hovered around the table to talk to Trip. It didn’t take her more than a few minutes to get her computer to pick up the feeds from the listening devices and after some adjustment they came through perfectly clear on her speakers. “It’s really nice of you guys to let us come in early and set up for this,” Trip said, polite as can be.

“It’s not a problem,” one of the girls—Skye hadn’t tried extra hard to get their names—said.

“I mean, it’s for love,” chimed the other, putting her hand on Trip’s shoulder.

Tapping foot under the table, Skye waved to him and pointed to her ear. Trip nodded, then excused himself to the servers so that he could actually participate in what was supposed to be a group trick-friends-into-finally-dating-and-admitting-they-were-in-love-with-each-other plan. When the girls went to go do whatever they were doing, probably their jobs, Trip sat up at the table. He had impeccable posture. “It’s a nice night out,” he said conversationally. His voice was soft, she assumed to mimic how it would sound when the rest of the restaurant was filled with music and patrons.

Skye adjusted the frequency and volume on the computer just slightly as he continued. “I’m really glad we’re doing this, you know. For them. They deserve it.” Before she could signal him that her readings were good, he said, “You look really beautiful tonight. I can’t believe how stunning you look in that dress.”

Her heart skipped a beat and she couldn’t find the strength to lift her hands off the keyboard. She looked down at the white dress she was wearing; it was usually hidden in the back of her closet, a favorite piece that she never had anywhere in which to go. It seemed appropriate for the venue and it didn’t hurt that it was one of the few things she owned that actually made her feel pretty. Swallowing hard, she gave him a shaky thumbs up and muted the audio from the bugs so she wouldn’t have to hear any ambient restaurant noise.

Trip approached the table with a warm smile, sliding into his side of the booth with grace despite his tall frame. “You got all that?”

She nodded jerkily, clicking her heel against the wood floor. “You know…you know, Fitz would never say any of that,” she said, hoping to play it off. She prayed that her cheeks weren’t as red as they felt. “You know he’s not that suave.”

Leaning against the back of the booth, Trip just stared at her for a moment. “I don’t know. I think he’s a lot of things you don’t realize.” Then he shrugged and grinned cheekily. “Plus, he’s my boy, I’ve gotta have some faith in him.”

They sat around sipping glasses of water and generally chatting until Skye suddenly kicked Trip under the table. “Jemma’s here!” She peeked out carefully from around the corner of the booth. “Ugh, of course she’s here early, she hates it when people aren’t punctual.” The hostess sat Jemma at the appropriate table with her back to Skye and Trip. “She’s probably going to text me in like two minutes wondering where I am, watch.”

Before that could happen, Fitz walked in the door. Skye reached across the table for Trip’s hand. “He’s here!” She couldn’t help but feel slightly proud that he was dressed up for Fitz, wearing pressed trousers and a nicer sweater than he usually did. The hostess escorted him to the table where Jemma was sitting and Fitz seemed too stunned by her to protest—he just sat in the seat across from her, gaping. Before departing, the hostess handed each of them an envelope that Skye had prepared ahead of time. “I don’t mean to sound upset to see you because I’m very glad to see you,” Jemma said, ducking her head a bit. Skye could hear the ripping of the envelopes. “I’m very confused right now.”

“Yeah, me too,” Fitz said in a hushed tone. He seemed appropriately awed by Jemma in her dark blue cocktail dress. “I’m supposed to be on a blind double date with Trip.”

“Oh. You were supposed to be on a date?” Skye rolled her eyes at Jemma’s faux polite interest.

“I mean, just because he begged me to. The girl he wanted to go out with had a friend or whatever,” he insisted. “Just trying to be a pal, that’s all.”

There was a rustling of paper as they pulled out the letter Skye had left to each of them. After a moment of silence, Jemma said, “We’ve been set up.” Her incredulousness almost completely covered up her embarrassment. “I can’t believe them.”

From her spot in the booth, Skye could see how pink Fitz’s face was becoming. “Yeah, I mean…yeah.” He cleared his throat before folding up the letter and putting it back on the table, rubbing the back of his neck. “We don’t have to stay, you know. I mean, if you don’t want to do this, we can leave.”

Jemma’s head snapped up and she stared at him. “Oh, no, I…” She coughed lightly. “I sort of think they might have a point. Even if this was not necessarily the way to go about it.” She tucked her curls behind her ears. “And I mean, we’re already here. But if you want to—”

“Do you want an appetizer?” Fitz said quickly. When Jemma just laughed, he shrugged. “I mean, they probably won’t let us get wine. Americans and all.” He hesitated a moment, not long enough for her to be able to answer before he said, “You look really pretty.”

Her smile was clear in her tone when she said, “Thank you, Fitz.”

Practically standing up in her seat, Skye reached across the table to hit at Trip’s shoulder. “I cannot believe how well that went! I thought Jemma was going to throw a fit!”

He laughed, catching her hand in his and squeezing it tightly. “I know! Those two have been dying for an excuse, we just gave it to them.”

“That’s because they’re stupid and can’t see what’s right in front of them. It’s clear to everyone but them that they want to jump each other.” She took another glance outside of the booth, heart thumping in her chest at the sight of Fitz laughing, his cheeks rosy.

“We probably shouldn’t head out just yet,” Trip said, stretching his arms over his head and nodding at the computer. “Never know when things might implode.”

Skye rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. Frankly, I’m surprised Jemma’s not already blowing up my phone, if only to yell at me.”

“She’s not going to yell at you,” Trip insisted. “She might lecture you a bit, but then she’s going to thank you.” His reassurance actually did make Skye feel better and she settled comfortably against the cushion of the booth as Trip opened up the sole menu that had been sitting at the end of the table. “You want to get some food?”

Grinning wickedly, she raised an eyebrow at him. “Okay, here’s one thing you’ve gotta know about me, Trip: I will never say no to food.”

“A girl after my own heart,” he murmured, eyes flicking up to her and back to the menu before he flagged down one of the waitresses.

After they had put in their order, Skye swirled her straw around her drink thoughtfully. “You know, I put little cards in their envelopes.” He quirked an eyebrow at her questioningly and she made a face at herself. “These, like, things I found in a fashion magazine. Talking points in case the conversation stalls on a date, to get the momentum going again.”

Trip chuckled and nodded at the laptop, on which they had turned the volume down so it was mostly at a dull roar of British accents. “Have these two ever had an issue talking to each other? Have they ever stopped talking to each other? Or even just stopped talking?”

Smiling despite herself, she said, “I know, it’s pretty dumb. I was just worried they’d get all nervous and awkward because of the whole date thing and clam up. Fitz can get pretty clammy.”

He rested his arms against the table, leaning in to look at her with curious brown eyes. “Alright, now I gotta know, what was on the cards?”

Groaning under her breath, she shook her head. “I don’t know, just things! Like, tell me about your first pet. What would your dream job be if money and skills weren’t a factor? What’s your favorite book, like your legit favorite book, not the book you tell people to sound all intellectual and pretentious?”

“I sort of figure they talk about these things anyway,” he mused, but it didn’t come out as judgmental of her. He linked his long fingers together and raised his eyebrows at her. “Okay, so favorite book, hit me.”

There was a beat as she tapped her nails against the glass that held her soda. “ _Harry Potter._ ”

His grin blinded her. “I thought this was supposed to be the answer that wasn’t meant to impress people.”

“No, I’m serious!” she said, laughing. “We weren’t allowed to read them at St. Agnes, the nuns used to go on about Satanism and devil worship, but one of my foster homes gave me the first three as like a welcome to the family thing. I was only there for six months or whatever and I had to hide them when I got back to St. Agnes, but I loved them so much. I always made it my mission when I got to foster homes to get the other books when I could.”

She focused her eyes on the table to avoid Trip’s stare, knowing it would be a mix of shock and pity that she was far too used to. “I mean, an orphan learns that he has magical powers and a place he belongs and his parents really loved him and he gets to save the world and make friends and get a new family.” She cleared her throat to stop her voice from cracking. “What’s not to love?”

Trip shook his head slowly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t—I didn’t know, I wasn’t trying to—”

“Hey, no, I know. It’s not like they give us a pin to wear.” She gestured to her chest. “’Hi, I’m Skye, ask me about being an orphan!’ It’s fine.” He nodded quickly, pressing his lips together. “You can ask, you know,” she said. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Girl, I respect you way too much to pry into your business like that.”

Her heart thumped so heavily in her chest that she was out of breath for a moment. “There’s not really much to tell,” she said after taking a deep breath. “I was found when I was a baby, they brought me to the orphanage. I was bounced around foster homes. There’s no record of my birth or anything, but you wouldn’t believe how many financially needy scholarships you can get if you’ve literally never had any money in your entire life.”

There was no hesitation when he reached across the table, threading his fingers through hers. The way his thumb rubbed back and forth across her knuckles felt nice, a sensation of warm sparks shooting up her arm. “I’m sorry.”

“I know,” she said and she realized that never for a moment has she doubted his sincerity. “Thanks.” She squeezed his hand back, but made no move to allow him to pull away. “So, I bet you have a perfect family too.”

“No family’s perfect,” he said, corner of his mouth quirking up in a smile. When she gave him a disbelieving look, the grin took over his entire face and he chuckled. “My family is pretty great though.”

Skye anchored her elbow on the table, resting her chin on her free hand. “Tell me about them.”

His eyes brightened with excitement at her interest. “Well, I was raised mostly by my mom and my grandparents. No brothers or sisters, but we’ve always had this big extended family. My grandpa fought in World War II in a special unit and always kept in contact with his old combat buddies and their families. It’s hard for a lot of them to travel these days, but they’ve got all us kids setting up Skype and stuff for them so they can still chat and their kids are sort of like my cousins and all that. My granddad was actually a war hero,” he said, and the fondness in his voice was evident. “He didn’t really get all the recognition he deserved because of being a black man, but after the war he was able to set up a nice life for himself and my gran.”

She tightened her fingers through his. “They must be really proud of you.”

“They are, but not about the whole basketball thing,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s not that they’re not proud of that,” he added at her confused look. “Obviously they appreciate that I have a talent and I’ve taken the time to nurture it and continue to put in the effort to maintain my abilities to be the best. But what they’re most proud of is that I’ve been on the honor roll every semester I’ve been here and never once let sports get in the way of my education—Granddad has always reminded me that he saw good men get seriously injured in the war and obviously the NBA isn’t war, but even if I do make pro, there’s no telling what could happen and having something stable to fall back on is important.”

Skye beamed at him. “I like your grandpa.”

“He’d like you too,” Trip said, chuckling. “I think you’d give him a run for his money. He actually used to set aside money for me every month since I was born, told my mama that I was going to college no matter what. It was nice telling him it was paid for. Something no one had to worry about.”

As one of the waitresses came by to drop off their food, Trip reluctantly pulled his hand away. Skye tried to hide her frown of disappointment at how chilly her hand felt now. As she looked down at her plate of spaghetti, she mentally rationalized that she really didn’t need more than one hand to twirl pasta around a fork.

“I wonder how the kids are doing,” Trip said as he cut into his steak.

“Oh, oh yeah,” Skye said, suddenly flustered. She had forgotten all about Jemma and Fitz. Turning the volume up a bit on the laptop, their booth was filled with the sudden accented chatter of scientific babble. “I think it’s going okay.”

“They just needed a push in the right direction,” he said. “These potatoes are pretty amazing. You want a bite?” He scooped some up on his fork and held it across the table to her and Skye didn’t hesitated before eating it off his fork.

Any agreement of how great the potatoes were was interrupted by one of the waitresses showing up with a basket of bread that she set down in the middle of the table. “Can I get you anything else, Trip?” she said, smiling widely at him. “The bartender’s a big fan of yours, we can probably get you a beer or something if you want.”

He shook his head. “I’m fine, Casey, thanks. Got practice tomorrow.”

When she bounced away from the table, Skye leaned back in her seat, absentmindedly twirling her spaghetti around her fork until it had become a giant mass. “So, how many of them have you dated?”

He paused midway through reaching into the bread basket. “I’m sorry?”

“I mean, big man on campus and all that, you must have girls throwing themselves at you everywhere you go. You’ve got your pick. Does it work on like a sweepstakes or do you do it by ratings?”

After a moment’s silence, he said, “I don’t really date, Skye. I’ll take a girl out occasionally to dinner or to the movies or if we have some sort of team event that usually requires a date, but I haven’t had a girlfriend since I started here and I don’t sleep around. I haven’t dated anyone here. I take relationships seriously—they take time and effort and commitment and I’m already committed to my team and to getting my degree. If I was going to date someone, it would have to be someone who I think was important enough to put in the effort of a relationship and take it seriously and until then, I don’t think it’s right to get someone’s hopes up for something that won’t happen.”

“Oh.” Skye felt about two inches tall and wondered if it was possible to crawl into herself and disappear completely. “I’m…I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…” She trailed off, unable to accurately complete that sentence. Shouldn’t have assumed? Shouldn’t have been a jerk? Shouldn’t have been…jealous?

He took a sip of his water. “I know a lot of people think a lot of things about me and what I do and what I’m entitled to and what I think I’m entitled to, but I just want to find a girl that is special and who I have a connection with, not just fool around.”

She chewed on her bottom lip and, despite her embarrassment, was drawn up to look him in the eye. Rather than being angry or even annoyed, like she expected, he was just watching her intently, almost vulnerably. “I understand,” she finally said, voice soft. “You’re not going to give up what little time you have for yourself for nothing. You want something that means something.”

“Right,” he said. “Someone who means something to me.” He took a bite of his steak and chewed slowly before saying, “So, what else was on those cards of yours?”

They chatted lightly over dinner, discussing movies, high school, all the vacations Skye’s always dreamed of taking. They got so caught up in their conversation, Skye almost didn’t realize when Jemma and Fitz got up to leave. “It looks like they’re going,” she said, peering around the edge of the booth. Fitz had stood up to help pull Jemma’s chair out and they were standing with even less space between them than they normally did, which she narrated to Trip. She had to lean further out of the booth to watch them walk towards the door, but couldn’t hold back a bit of a squeal of excitement when she saw Fitz’s hand low on Jemma’s back.

“Oh, man,” she said as she sank back into the booth. “This totally worked.”

“We make a good team.”

“Damn right we do.” She beamed at him, kicking him playfully under the table. “I’m gonna go get my bugs before they clear the table.” She slid out of her seat and scurried over to the table, pulling off the devices from both under the tabletop and the pepper shaker. She waved to the hostess to let her know that she got her stuff and that it was all clear then headed back to Trip. “We are all good,” she said, putting the devices back in their box and loading it in her bag with her laptop.

“Awesome,” he said. “I got the check and paid, so we’re good here too.”

Skye looked up in surprise. “Wait, what?” Scrambling for her wallet, she said, “Well, how much was my portion? Let me give you some money.”

Snorting, he said, “Girl, don’t even think about it. I was the one who thought we should come to this restaurant and I was the one who suggested we get food. I’ve got it covered.” When Skye hesitated, he pushed her wallet away gently. “You can get next time.”

She swallowed against a suddenly dry mouth. “Yeah. Okay, I will.”

The smile he gave her was so wide and bright that she was reminded why people were told not to stare into the sun. “Well alright then.”

Realizing that the bill had been paid, the plates had been cleared, and their marks had gone off to do things she was certain Jemma would tell her about later, Skye was starting to wonder if there was any reason for them to stick around. Dessert? “So, uh…”

Trip seemed equally unwilling to move from the booth. “We should probably let them have the table,” he said, though he clearly did not enjoy saying it. “I left a big tip, but, you know, turnover is important for the service industry.”

“Right, of course.” Grabbing her laptop bag, she moved out of the booth, coming to stand next to him. “Uh, I should get these back to Miles. I told him I’d do it tonight.” When Trip just made a noise of acknowledgement, she glanced up at him. “But I’ll call you? To…to let you know what Jemma says, about the date. And how it went.”

“Yeah, definitely. I’m sure Fitz’ll want to talk too. We can exchange notes.” He rubbed the back of his head anxiously before wrapping his arms around her, giving her a gentle hug. Skye immediately leaned into his firm chest, reveling in how simultaneously strong and tender he was.

She inhaled deeply before she stepped back out of his embrace, his spicy, musky scent clinging to her. “I’ll…I’ll see you later,” she whispered. She squeezed his arm before slipping past him and heading out the door.


	3. My Head's in the Game, But My Heart's in the Song

The night was cool and breezy and she drove with the windows down and the stereo blasting all the way to Miles’ place, as if she was hoping the wind would blow all the thoughts out of her mind. He lived in an apartment complex about twenty minutes away from campus—a perfect hideout spot for when she wanted to escape—but tonight as soon as she pulled up, she knew she wouldn’t be staying. Instead, she dropped off the box of listening devices at his door, knocked a few times, and headed back to her van as fast as her heels would carry her.

She drove slowly back to the university, even knowing it would take another fifteen minutes once she arrived to find a freaking parking spot. The solitude seemed to suit her, even just for the moment. As she headed back into her dorm, waving to people she knew as she passed by, she put her usual grin on her face, excited to talk to Jemma about her date and even more excited to push away all thoughts of her own night for a little while.

All of her plans changed when she reached her door and saw the hot pink scrunchie wrapped snugly around the handle. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she groaned, leaning against the wall.

Several possibilities ran through her mind: she could try sleeping in her van; it wouldn’t be the first or hundredth time she’d done that. There were actually several fairly comfortable couches in the library. When a third opportunity occurred to her, she adjusted her laptop bag on her shoulder and headed across the quad to the athletics dorm.

It was still early enough at night that people were coming in and out of the dorm fairly often, giving her more than ample opportunity to sneak in. The first person she asked was able to tell her where to find Trip’s room—third floor, take a left, the one all the way at the end of the hall.

She knocked several times on his door before he opened it. He had changed out of his more formal restaurant clothes and she took a second to appreciate his arms in the worn tank top he had thrown over some basketball shorts. The glare she shot him had no heat behind it. “I’ve been sexiled.”

That startled a laugh out of him. “Excuse me?”

“I go back to my dorm and there’s a hot pink scrunchie on my doorknob. That’s like, Defcon 1 in hair srunchies. That’s not the knock-before-you-come-in scrunchie or even the come-back-in-a-few-hours scrunchie. No, that’s the don’t-even-bother-coming-back-tonight scrunchie, which has only been used like twice in all the time I’ve lived with Jemma.”

Trip licked his bottom lip slowly. “Go Fitz.”

“I am very proud of Fitz,” she admitted, leaning against his doorframe. “Very happy, I will get him a Congrats on the Sex cake. I am, however, less happy for me and where I’m going to sleep tonight.”

He chuckled, then stood back and held her door open for her. “Well, _mi casa es su casa_. I did kind of sorta get you into this.”

“You sure?” She walked past him into the small dorm room; there was a single bed, dresser, and desk, but not much else. “I can go find a spot in the library.”

“I was raised better than that,” he assured her. “Take the bed. It’s got fresh sheets.”

“And where will you sleep?”

He gestured to the carpeted floor between his bed and desk. “You think my mama sent me to college without at least a thousand spare blankets? Trust me, I can make myself a decently comfortable bed on the floor.”

“If you say so,” Skye said, dropping off her laptop bag next to the door. She perched on the edge of his bed and shucked off her heels, giving the room a more appraising look. The bedspread was a traditional navy blue and the walls were covered in calendars, professional basketball posters, and pictures of people she could only assume were Trip’s extended family. It felt intimate to be inside of his room, but not uncomfortable. “So, basketball star gets a private room, huh?”

He narrowed his eyes at her from where he was pulling out a huge stack of blankets from the top of his closet. “There is a lottery system! Everyone has a chance, my name was just drawn.”

“Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night.”

“It is what I have to tell myself,” he said, dumping the blankets on the floor. “Leave me to my denial and delusions.”

She laughed as he walked over to his dresser and pulled out a giant t-shirt. “Here,” he said, handing it to her.

Stretching the shirt over her head, she said, “Are we using this to build a fort?”

“It’s too big on me,” he said, shaking his head. “So I thought it’d be good for you to sleep in. That dress is pretty, but probably not something you want to spend the night in.”

“Oh. Thanks.” She clutched the shirt in her lap, twisting the cotton material between her fingers. “You know, you’re not like I expected.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” he said, starting to lay out the blankets. “The first time I tried to talk to you I was pretty sure you were going to mace me.”

“Tase.”

“What?”

She smiled broadly at him. “I don’t carry mace, I carry a Taser.”

He seemed like he was about to argue with her about how that was against school regulations, but then thought better of it. Instead, he went back to assembling his makeshift bed. “I just wanted to meet you and you didn’t seem interested, so I sort of panicked and started talking about Jemma.”

Skye stared at the back of his head, feeling as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. “Wait, what?”

Straightening up slowly, he turned to look at her with his lips set in a firm line. “I’d wanted to talk to you for a while and then you shut me down and Fitz and Jemma were the only things we had obviously in common, so I sort of defaulted.” He seemed to mistake her silence for anger, hurrying to add, “I’m glad it worked out the way it did, Fitz really has been hung up on Jemma as long as I’ve known him. And I didn’t mean to like, trick you or anything. I just wanted to talk you.”

“You wanted to talk to _me_?” she whispered. “You knew I existed?”

“Girl, of course,” he said, relief starting to clear his features. “Fitz talks about you all the time.” When she looked unimpressed, he clarified, “I mean, not as much as he talks about Jemma, but still a lot. It’s hard not to be intrigued when he talks about how cool you are. The more I heard, the more interested I was. And then the first time I saw you, I knew I wanted to talk to you, I just wasn’t sure how.”

Dragging her fingers through her hair, she said, “I can’t believe—I mean, you’re _you_. I know I’m pretty great, but I’m not sure why you’d be looking at me.”

Shaking his head, he laughed in disbelief. “When you’re around, I can’t see anyone else.” Skye felt her heart leap into her throat as he ducked his head. “If you’re not into me that way, it’s cool. I’m glad we’ve become friends. I mean, I hope we’re friends at least.”

She left his shirt on the bed as she stood up. Cupping his cheeks in her hands, she drew his face down so she could press her lips to his. His reflexes were just as good as she had heard and his arms instantly came to wrap around her body as he kissed her back. His lips were warm and the feeling of them against hers sent shocks of pleasure through her entire body.

His tongue swept over her mouth and she groaned, pressing up on her toes for more of him. All of the heat in her core that she had been desperately ignoring was pulsing through her. Every part of her body that he touched, even just for a second, was on fire and it stoked the inferno inside her even higher. Though they threatened to consume her, she loved the flames, loved the way he controlled them; she wanted him to touch every part of her.

Her hands slipped underneath his tank top, sliding up his heavily muscled back and around to his sides. She could feel the goosebumps on his skin and her body responded in kind, shivering. When his lips left hers, an involuntary cry was wrenched from her lips only to be replaced by a gasp when he kissed her neck slowly, licking into the dip at the base of her throat before his lips traced the neckline of her dress.

Skye reached behind herself, fumbling for the zipper of her dress and only able to get it halfway down in her current state of thoughtlessness. Grabbing for his hand, she stood amazed at the size of his palms and the length of his fingers—she knew what he could do with a basketball, what the hell was he going to do to her—before guiding him back between her shoulder blades.

“Please,” she said breathlessly when he hesitated, digits simply stroking the skin that had already been exposed.

“Skye, I don’t…” He cut himself off and kissed her softly as her stomach dropped. “I told you, I don’t have one night stands. I don’t sleep around.”

Feeling bold and surer of herself than she could ever remember, she caressed his cheeks gently with her thumbs. “Good. I don’t want you to sleep with anyone else.”

It seemed to take him a second to comprehend her statement and make his decision. He pulled his hand away from her back so he could pull his tank top off, giving Skye her first look at his shirtless form. It was enough to make a weaker woman feel faint. This time when he kissed her, his arms wrapped tightly around her and he guided her zipper all the way down.

Trip eased her out of her dress and onto his bed. As Skye rolled him on to his back for another kiss, she couldn’t help but be very thankful that someone believed basketball god Antoine Triplett deserved his own private room, lottery be damned.

\-----

She woke up the next morning with her face pressed into his shoulder, a strong arm slung around her back. A lifetime of new homes and a mostly nomadic lifestyle had taught her to wake instantly in unfamiliar places so that she could immediately get her bearings. Over time she had grown used to living with Jemma and now woke slowly, even with the furious rush of Jemma getting ready for the day around her. Now lying with Trip, she felt completely at peace; the warmth surrounding her was the perfect companion to the slow ease into alertness.

Closing her eyes, she nudged her face into his neck, breathing him in as she reveled in the giddiness of feeling her legs still tangled between his. His broad, strong chest rose and fell evenly as he stayed in a deep, sound sleep. After allowing the motion of his breathing move her—counting out the steady beats of his heart—she pulled back to get a good look at his face. It didn’t surprise her that even in his sleep, he was smiling.

The fond warmth that settled deep in her chest did surprise her. The way this guy had snuck in and gotten under her skin so quickly was something she wasn’t sure she could put words to. She had liked Jemma and Fitz pretty much immediately, but she shared a 10x10 space with Jemma and Fitz was an addition that was going to come anyway, so it was a good thing she’d fallen for him too. But Trip—everything about him stunned her. It wasn’t that he was gorgeous; objectively, she’d known that, his face was everywhere. He was genuinely kind in the way that she knew few people were; he cared about the people that mattered most to her. He had completely overtaken her and she hadn’t even realized it.

Overcome with affection, Skye brushed her lips against his cheek. She didn’t particularly like surprises, but this had been a good one. Basketball god Antoine Triplett…she supposed stranger things had happened.

To her left, the buzzing of an alarm went off and Trip stirred beneath her. The arm that had been keeping her snug to him lifted to smack at his clock, silencing the noise. His eyes blinked open slowly and when they focused on her, he smiled. “Hey.”

“Morning,” she said. Tightening his arm back around her waist, thumb skidding over her bare hip, Trip kissed her in proper greeting. It was slow and lazy, warmth and brightness glowing in her chest like a sunrise with each additional press of his lips against hers. Skye settled herself on top of him, entire body finally coming to life at the feel of his naked form spread out beneath her. Before she could get too enthralled, she pulled back, trying to catch her breath. “Was there a reason for that alarm?”

He groaned against her shoulder before trailing kisses up her neck. “I’ve got practice.”

Her noise of displeasure was eaten in her moan as he sucked a mark into her pulse point. “Can I convince you to skip practice? Because I’ve got a lot of ideas about other things we can do.”

Laughing into her skin, he nudged her shoulder with his forehead. “Oh, girl, do not tempt me. But if I shove off practice, I could get kicked off the team and we’ll lose this private room and have to start competing with Fitz and Jemma to see who gets to hot pink scrunchie your room.”

“The private room that you won through the lottery, right?”

“Right.” He kissed her sweetly, cupping the back of her head in one of his large hands. When he pulled back, he rubbed her nose with his, murmuring, “That’s my girl.”

Flushing, she kissed him again before extracting her legs from his and sitting up. He stared unabashed at her bare chest and she had no issues teasing him a bit, stretching her arms high over his head until he groaned, flopping back into his pillow with his arm over his face. “I’m just saying,” she said, kissing his chest. “One practice.”

“I can’t, I can’t,” he said, caressing her cheek with his thumb. “We could do food though? I’ve gotta hit the dining hall to carb up first.”

Glancing at the clock, she made a face, wrinkling her nose. “I should probably check on Jemma, let her know I didn’t die since she _abandoned_ me last night.” She leaned off the bed to fish for her underwear. “I’ll let you make it up to me later though.”

The mattress shifted as he sat up and pressed a kiss to the back of her bare shoulder. “You’ve got it.”

It didn’t take her long to pull on last night’s dress, though Trip did grumble about having to zip it up rather than down this time. Skye gave him a long kiss before slipping on her heels and grabbing her laptop bag. “I’ll call you after practice,” Trip said, his hand lingering at her waist.

She bit her lip nervously. “I’ll hold you to that.”

He opened his mouth, eyebrow cocked like he was about to make a joke, then seemed to think better of it. “I promise,” he said sincerely, kissing her softly. “I’ll call you.”

“Then I’ll talk to you later.” She gave him a little wave before she headed out into the hallway, leaving him to get ready for his practice.

Skye avoided looking at anyone in the hallway during her first—of many?—walk of shame through the athletics dorm. Obviously she wasn’t the first person who had walked out of there in last night’s dress, especially not from the basketball wing, but she recognized that she might be the first that had come from Trip’s door. The thought made her heart bounce a bit in her chest and smiled all the way back to her dorm.

The scrunchie was still on the door and she rolled her eyes, knocking once before pulling it off the knob. “Okay, I don’t care who is naked in there, I’m coming in!” she called out, pulling her keys out of her bag.

When she opened the door, all she saw was Jemma sitting on her bed, wrapped in a robe. Her hair was a tangled mass of waves haloed around her head. She had the most serene expression on her face that Skye had ever seen on her friend. “Hey,” Skye said casually, setting her laptop bag down on her desk. “Have a good night?”

Jemma’s face was pink as she nodded, eyes glassy with joy. “It was the best night of my life,” she said, voice breathy. “Thank you, Skye.”

“Best night of your life, huh?” Skye raised an eyebrow at her as she sat across on her own bed. “That’s a pretty big statement. Did Fitz have a pretty big—”

“Skye!” Jemma wrinkled her nose, laughing in surprise. “We mostly talked all night.”

“You didn’t, uh, you know?”

“Oh, we did,” Jemma assured her, grinning. “More than once. And it was…it was amazing. But between that, we talked about everything. About all the time we wasted not being together. About how we should be mad at you and Trip for setting us up but we really can’t be because we would have wasted even more time.” She dragged her bottom lip between her teeth and sighed. “It really was the best night.”

It was impossible not to smile with Jemma’s happiness filling the room. “I’m really glad. I knew you two kids would work it out.” When Jemma just nodded, Skye smirked at her. “You want to tell me everything, don’t you?”

“Sort of,” Jemma admitted, attempting to look sheepish. “I was about to go take a shower, but…”

“I totally need a shower too,” Skye said. “How about we both shower and we can go grab some lunch and you can tell me every detail.”

“Yeah?”

Skye nodded, leaning over and kicking Jemma’s foot lightly. “Yeah. I want to hear it.”

Bouncing up from her bed quickly, Jemma hugged her friend. “Thank you. For everything.”

After they had showered and gotten dressed, they went to lunch at Jemma’s favorite small café that was right off campus. Even though it was well past brunch, Skye got a huge pile of French toast covered in syrup and bananas and nuts and whipped cream. Apparently, sleeping with a basketball star also meant having the appetite of one.

As Jemma sipped her tea and ate her sandwich, she chatted animatedly about how the date had gone. Skye was glad she hadn’t been listening that closely last night so it all sounded mostly new to her. When she talked about going back to the dorm with Fitz, she kept the descriptions mostly PG-13 but her impossibly wide grin and dancing eyes told another story altogether. Her face seemed to glow with a joy that radiated from inside of her. There was no doubt that she was a woman in love and had fully embraced it.

Skye nodded her thanks to the waitress who topped off her coffee before grinning fondly at Jemma. “I’m really happy for you, you know.”

“I have no doubt about that,” Jemma said, squeezing Skye’s hand and lacing their fingers together. “You’re the reason. We must have been pretty abominable if you had to force us on a blind date together.”

Skye thought about making a joke, but it wouldn’t come out around the lump in her throat. “You’re worth it,” she whispered. As Jemma’s face lit up with another smile, Skye felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. When she slipped it out of her jeans, Trip’s name greeted her and her heart squeezed in her chest. “I’ll be back in a sec,” she told Jemma, sliding her finger across the screen to answer it and slipping outside.

“Hello?” she said once she was outside the dull buzz of the café.

“Hey, girl,” Trip said, breathing a bit heavily. “Just got done with practice.”

There was a lot of background noise on his side of the line and she could hear loud conversations and the sound of metal on metal. “Are you… are you in the locker room?”

“Yeah.” He laughed lowly. “I told you, I just got done with practice.”

She shook her head, unable to stop smiling. “You’re ridiculous.”

“A promise is a promise.”

“What were you going to do, talk to me in the shower?” She had to admit, it wasn’t the worst mental image she’d ever had.

“It’s an option, my phone is waterproof.”

“I’m going to need photographic evidence.”

“Now you’re just trying to get me in trouble.”

She laughed, running a hand through her hair. “As much as I’d like to continue getting you in trouble, I’m actually eating lunch with Jemma.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your lunch,” he said. She could hear the soft close of his locker. “You gonna be with her all day?”

Shaking her head even though he couldn’t see her, she said, “Nah, she’s got another date with Fitz later. This may be the last time I ever actually see her if Fitz has it his way.”

Chuckling, Trip said, “Well, I’m gonna shower and grab some food to take back to my room. How about whenever you’re ready, you meet me over there and let me take you out on a proper date?”

Hoping he didn’t hear her sharp intake of breath, she let it out slowly. “That, um, that sounds really nice.”

“Good. Come by whenever you want.” His smile was evident in his voice. “Hey, before you go, they have a good time last night?”

“Understatement,” she said, rolling her eyes affectionately. “’Greatest night of her life’ was thrown around an awful lot. Apparently we’re going to have to put in a bit more effort if we want to become worthy of the hot pink scrunchie.”

“Challenge accepted,” he said and the rough gravel in his voice went straight to her gut. “I’ll see you later, Skye.”

She hung up, fairly certain this date wasn’t making it anywhere past his bed again. When she rejoined Jemma at the table, her friend had a fresh cup of tea in front of her. “Everything alright?” Jemma said.

Skye shook her head. “No, everything’s great. So, uh, you know how you kicked me out of the room last night?” Jemma winced and nodded, and before she could apologize again, Skye said, “I kind of went to Trip’s place.”

The look of shock on Jemma’s face was priceless. “You went—oh. Why? I mean, I guess I understand why, but…why?”

She shrugged, shaking some sugar into her now lukewarm coffee. “We got along really well when we were trying to hook you up and it was kind of half his fault that I didn’t have anywhere to go so. He’s a good guy. Figured it was as good a place as any to go.”

“And?” Jemma raised an eyebrow expectantly. “What happened?” When Skye just fixed her with an incredulous look, Jemma’s jaw dropped. “You didn’t? With—Skye!”

“Come on, wouldn’t you?” Spinning her spoon around her coffee cup, she murmured, “You’re not the only one who can get laid.”

“It’s not that, it’s just—” Jemma took a long sip of her tea, apparently taking a moment to be thoughtful. “He doesn’t usually do hook ups, according to Fitz and from what I’ve seen. It’s not something I expected.”

Scowling half-heartedly, Skye said, “We didn’t hook up. I mean, we did, but like…I’m going over there later. To go on a date. I’m going to date him.”

“Wow,” Jemma said, beaming at her. “You and Trip.”

“You and Fitz,” Skye shot back.

“Yes,” Jemma said dismissively. “But apparently everyone knew that was going to happen.”

Skye rolled her eyes as her phone buzzed with a text message. She glanced down at the screen, heart racing when she saw it was a picture that was very obviously taken in the locker room showers of Trip naked from the waist up, still wet from the spray of the water. Swallowing back a noise, she considered showing it to Jemma, then decidedly stuck her phone back in her pocket. He was hers now, after all.

\-----

The two parted ways after breakfast, with Jemma heading over to Fitz’s dorm—though Skye had a sneaking suspicion that hot pink scrunchie would be on her doorknob again that night—and Skye heading back over to the athletic dorms. She waited impatiently for a time to sneak in, mentally reminding herself that she needed to hack into the system to recode her ID card so that she could get in the building whenever she wanted. She was going to be spending a lot of time there, after all.

When she knocked on his door, he opened it wearing only a pair of boxer shorts. “Oh, hey!” he said, voice giving away his surprise even when his eyes lit up with happiness. “I’m sorry, I didn’t expect that you’d be coming over so soon. I was just working on a paper. I would have gotten dressed.”

Skye grabbed his face, pulling him down for a kiss as she walked into the room, kicking the door shut behind her. He kissed her back hungrily, one large hand wrapping around the back of her neck while the other settled in the curve of her back. His skin was still warm from his practice and shower and her cooler skin shivered from his touch; she could feel herself heating up from the inside, her body molten in his arms.

As she pressed herself against him, trailing her lips down his neck, he panted. “Not that I’m not glad to see you,” he said, resting his lips on the top of her head for a second. “But I thought we were going out for a proper date.”

“I just ate,” she said, running her tongue along his collarbone.

“Movie?” The word came out as a strangled groan as she nipped at his Adam’s apple.

She kissed him hard. “Later. Later we can do all the proper things you want, but right now I am very glad you did not get dressed.”

The way he kissed her was tender, but she could feel the passion barely contained beneath it. “Oh, thank god.” Flicking open the button of her jeans, he lifted her up with one arm and set her on his bed. “Because I think you and I have a challenge we need to see to.”

She shuddered with need at his words and his hands on her thighs as he sought to divest her of his jeans. Lips roaming over his chest and abs, she had to admit that while the picture was good, nothing could beat the real thing.

Later, as she lay with her head on his shoulder, more comfortable and satisfied than she’d ever been in her entire life, she couldn’t help but smile. Trip wrapped his arms around her tighter, kissing the top of her head. Feeling overcome with emotions, she sought out his hand, sliding her fingers through his.

Skye had always known it was true. She knew it with Fitz and Jemma and she was starting to realize it here too. Nothing was better than the real thing.


End file.
